BLOOMINGTON

NAME: Bloomington COUNTY: Story ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: snowy and cold in winter, hot and muggy in summer BEST TIME TO VISIT: Best to visit in autumn

COMMENTS: No current residents, but some old-timers in the area can tell you what buildings in the area used to be in Bloomington. About 1 1/2 miles NE of Ames REMAINS: Rubble- Last building collapsed few years ago

Bloomington, Iowa was established in June of 1857. It hoped to become an important railroad town, but the railroad passed 2 miles South of Bloomington, and the town of Ames, Iowa was established instead in 1864. The opening of the Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State) in Ames sealed the fate of Bloomington in 1868, but the town continued. In March of 1909, the town was vacated. Some old-timers in the area can still show you buildings that were once part of Bloomington. The last class reunion of the Bloomington one-room school was in 1941. An important character in the town's history was George Washington Carver. When he was living in Ames, he frequently used the scenic woodlands around Bloomington and the bluffs above the nearby Skunk River as a natural laboratory. He usually walked up through the woods from Ames on Sunday morning, and took a seat in the Methodist Church in Bloomington. The last sign of the community was the schoolhouse, which collapsed during a winter storm in 1990. Submitted by: Andrew Fowler

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